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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




MRS. BELLE THORNTON DICK 



Beautiful Thoughts 
of Noble Men 

Compiled by MRS. BELL£ THORNTON DICK 





JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY 

19 5 



LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 26 1905 

Copyright entry 
CLASS <* XXc. No. 




COPYRIGHT, 1905, 
BY 

Mrs. Belle Thornton Dick. 




V 



MISS ZUDIE HARRIS. 



DEDICATION. 

This collection of choice and elevated senti- 
ments is a symphony of thought which gives 
radiance to life, and appeals to the heart, some- 
what like the sweet cadences of chiming bells upon 
a Sabbath morn. 

It seems fitting that it should be dedicated to 
one who is a student of harmony; and the com- 
piler, in behalf of the writers, whose smiling like- 
nesses look out with approval from these pages, 
hereby dedicates this work to an esteemed friend, 
Miss Zudie Harris, who has achieved success as 
an interpreter of music, and who has accomplished 
a task which no other woman has accomplished — 
that of writing and playing a concerto — worthy of 
the name — with power and effect. 

Mrs. Belle Thornton Dick. 

Louisville, Ky., December 25, 1905. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Christmas Greeting i 

By Rt. Rev. Charges B- Woodcock, D. D. 

"The Shepherds Abiding in the Field" 3 

By Isaac T. Woodson. 

"The Old Year and the New in the Coliseum 

of Rome" 4 

Written by Col. R. T. Durrett in 1856. 

1 ' The Cradle and Christmas " 7 

By Dr. E. L. Powell. 

Mid- Winter 20 

By Madison Cawein. 

A Meditation 21 

By Francis R. Beattie, Ph. D., D. D., LL. D. 

A Summer Sunset 27 

By J. Stoddard Johnston. 

A Christmas Sermon 29 

By Rev. T. T. Eaton, D. D. 

"Lest We Forget" 40 

By Rev. S. S. Waltz, D. D. 

When Christ, the Lord of Glory, Came 44 

William F. Wood. 



Contents 

PAGE 

Christmas as an Anniversary .46 

By T. H. 

Christmas, the Height .48 

By Bert Finck. 

A Catch 51 

By Madison Cawein. 

A Picture 53 

By Rev. T. M. Hawes. 

By the Firelight 57 

By H. A. Cotter, M. D. 

Christmas Gifts 59 

By W. B. Hardeman. 

A Japanese Mother 61 

By Cai,e Young Rice. 

The New Year 63 

By Isaac T. Woodson. 

Christ Sent 66 

By Bennett H. Young. 

The Onward Way 71 

By Isaac T. Woodson. 




RT. REV. CHARLES E. WOODCOCK, D. D. 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



T 



^* v v* 

CHRISTMAS GREETING. 

BY RT. REV. CHARLES E. WOODCOCK, D. D. 

HE echoes of glad tidings, first proclaimed on 



the Judean plains, are prolonged in the joyful 
acclaims of Christmas. The intervening cen- 
turies have been too short to silence the rapturous 
song of the angelic host, the wide expanse of heaven 
too small to dim the glow of that natal morn. As, 
once more, we hail this festal day, if there be any 
song in the human heart, it breaks forth in tuneful 
harmony with the heavenly minstrelsies of old. If 
there be any gratitude, or worship, or thanksgiving, 
in the human soul, it will pay its grateful homage 
at the manger throne. That throne looms up across 
the ages, the throne of the "King of Kings and. 
Lord of Lords" ; before it we gather to offer Him 
our fealty and reaffirm our allegiance. 

We gaze upon the mystery of the manger — to 
the eye of sense but a little helpless Babe, to the 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

eye of faith the Incarnate God. The little hand 
which moves with but a baby's strength and 
impulse is an insignificant thing to unbelief; to the 
eye of faith it is the only hand which can stem the 
tide of sin and death, the Creator of new hopes, 
the Destroyer of penalties. It is the same hand 
that later was stretched out "humanly to heal 
divinely." Truly, He was then, and is now, our 
Immanuel, "God with us" to bring to us glad 
tidings of Peace, good will toward men, and redeem 
us by his own precious blood. 

So, let the Christmas cheer fill our hearts and 
souls, and its peace and joy find expression in some 
true service to God and man, in gratitude for the 
inestimable gift of the Son of God for our salvation. 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



"THE SHEPHERDS ABIDING IN THE 
FIELD." 

BY ISAAC T. WOODSON. 

Simple and tender were the songs of the Shepherds : 
Brief and sincere were the prayers they said: 

Their's was a faith of contemplation, 

And silence, and worship, of God, overhead. 

As, day by day, their flocks found kindness, 
And pasture and shelter, and food in store, 

These learned to love their gentle masters: 
They loved ; and sought to know no more. 

As, day by day, and night by night, 

These shepherds watched and tended their sheep, 
They learned that mortals need likewise a shepherd, 

Who, vigils, eternal, o'er them will keep. 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



EXTRACT FROM A POEM ENTITLED 

"THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW IN THE 
COLISEUM OF ROME." 

WRITTEN BY COL. R. T. DURRETT IN 1 856.* 

The noon of night 
Impends. One moment more must pass, and then 
The year that wears the diadem will fall, 
Forever fall, into the changeless past. 
How pregnant is this moment with rapt thoughts! 
This moment ! It doth to the future bind 
The past, and make of them one boundless, vast, 
Sublime Eternity. It is that link, 
Without which in duration's endless chain 
All past, all future and the present time 
Were disconnected parts confounded worse 
Than dire confusion's self. In its brief span 
Swift memory waves her life-restoring wand 
And calls up from the past immortal things, 
Whose genesis was long before the date 
Of the Cloaca Maxima and tomb 



*During the winter of 1855-6 Col. Durrett was at Rome, Italy, with 
several American acquaintances also spending the winter there. They 
all agreed to go to the Coliseum to watch the old year out and the new 
year in. When this was done each one promised to write what he 
thought about what he had seen. The poem from which this extract 
was taken is what Col. Durrett wrote on the occasion. 




COL. R. T. DURRETT. 






Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

Of Scipio. Events which filled long times, 
And great discoveries in the realm of art 
And science, which the dragging centuries 
Had scarce made known, now flash like vivid dreams 
Across the mind. The changeless stars which saw 
Arcadian shepherds watch their flocks by night 
Upon yon Palatine, ere Romulus 
Had founded there the citadel of Rome, 
Shine o'er us now. And yon same moon, that threw 
Her mellow beams upon the Pantheon, 
The shrine of all Rome's Gods and Goddesses, 
Two thousand years ago, rolls on unchanged 
Upon the silver chariot of the night. 
Yon deep blue sky, the pride of tropic climes, 
Looks on us with the same bright starry eyes 
That watched the city of the Seven Hills 
As from the work of Romulus it rose 
To majesty and grandeur ne'er surpassed. 
Yon Tiber winds his wonted course along 
The shores which once were clad with glory's pomp, 
And bears his waters from the Apennines 
Into the Midland Sea, just as he did 
When, centuries ago, iEneas came 
With all the Gods had spared of fallen Troy 
And landed on his banks. All else how changed ! 
The Eternal City wears ephemeral hues, 

5 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

The Caesar's palace, once the pride of Rome, 

Remains a heap of ruins. The classic hills, 

Upon whose crest the famous city stood, 

Have crumbled down, and scarcely seem to rise 

Above the rubbish which two thousand years 

Have piled around their base. The Forum lies 

Deep buried 'neath the waste of centuries. 

War, famine, pestilence, and flood and flame 

Have swept o'er ancient Rome; and naught remains 

To tell where glory dwelt, save mighty wrecks 

Which greet the eye like to immortal deaths. 

The Gods who erst were worshiped here are gone, 

And crumbled into dust their gorgeous shrines, 

And borne away their comely busts of bronze 

And marble statues, to adorn the halls 

Of those the sculptors deemed barbarians. 

Unto the memory of the Christian dead, 

Whom wild beasts tore and fire consumed to make 

A holiday for Roman elegance, 

This vast arena has been set apart 

And consecrated by his holiness, 

And prayers ascend now to the Triune God, 

Where Jove was throned and warrior Gods displayed 

In men the showman's arts. 





REV. E. L. POWELL 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



"THE CRADLE AND CHRISTMAS." 

or "The Reign of the Child." 

by dr. e. l. powell. 

Our text is found in the thirty-sixth verse of the 
ninth chapter of Mark's Gospel: "And He took a 
child and set him in the midst of them." This is 
the happy Christmas time, and the child is king. 
The Babe of Bethlehem has converted the cradle 
into a throne. No monarch of earth holds such 
undisputed sway over his subjects as the little sov- 
ereign of the home. The curly head wears the 
crown, and tiny hands bear the sceptre. All hail 
to the king! 

I sometimes wonder if the after years have 
brought to us any joy so vivid, so fresh with the 
dew of Heaven, as that which comes to the child on 
Christmas Day. Deeper and richer joys, born of 
deeper and richer experience, we have known; but 
none so keen, so spontaneous, so completely satis- 
fying for the moment. It is a long time, my friends, 
from manhood's prime, with its cares and responsi- 
bilities, to those opening days of life when Santa 
Claus was a reality and we dwelt in the fair world of 

7 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

imagination and illusion. Well it is for us that 
the Christmas time should revive these memories. 
Otherwise, we might become cold and hard and love- 
less. Otherwise, so absorbed are we in grappling 
with the stern, hard conditions of life, we might 
forget that Heaven is real, or that this old world was 
once touched with a glory never known on land or 
sea. It is good to feel that glow which comes from 
the days that are no more, and to bring ourselves 
under the inspiration of that prayer which can never 
be answered in literal fashion : 

"Turn backward, turn backward, O! Time, in your 

flight; 
Make me a child again just for to-night." 

Jesus loved the little children. Concerning them 
He spoke the immortal words, "Suffer the little 
children to come unto me and forbid them not, for 
of such is the kingdom of heaven." The figure of 
the Master with a little child in His arms is worthy 
to be immortalized in highest art. The man who 
does not love the child is fit for treasons, strata- 
gems, and spoils. It was a child that led Silas Mar- 
ner out of sullenness into sunny peace. It was a 
child that completed the work of redemption in the 
storm-swept soul of Jean Valjean; and in that 
vision of peace, when the lion and the lamb shall lie 

8 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

down together, under the beneficent reign of love, 
the prophet adds: "A little child shall lead them." 

EMPHASIS ON CHILDHOOD. 

The religion of Jesus is unique in the emphasis 
it places upon childhood. It has been said that 
other religions ignore or forget the child. Mahomet 
seems to know nothing about children. In heathen 
mythology the gods are not born as children; they 
come upon the stage full grown. Jesus, on the 
other hand, sets a child in the midst of His disciples, 
and, with the child as His text, declares that the 
child-spirit is an indispensable condition of entrance 
into His country. Not cleverness, not earthly pos- 
sessions, not worldly greatness, are necessary, but 
the simplicity and naturalness and upward look of 
tenderness which are characteristic of the child life 
and the child spirit. 

I want you to think to-night of the reasonable- 
ness of this emphasis which is placed by Jesus upon 
childhood; and you will observe that Christianity 
must always remain young, because Christianity has 
the child at its very heart. It can adapt itself to 
new conditions, to new circumstances, but it is 
always young. The Ancient of Days, who leads the 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

mighty host of Christian men and women, is always 
and everywhere the Babe of Bethlehem. Chris- 
tianity honors the child as a revelation of the divine 
nature. One day when Jesus was instructing His 
disciples He said unto them, "He that receiveth 
one such child in My name receiveth Me, and he 
that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me." 
To receive the child is to receive Christ, and to re- 
ceive Christ is to receive God. The child is the 
miniature of the divine; as a drop of dew can 
mirror the sun, so the child life reflects divine life. 
The babe in its mother's arms has no conscious sin, 
and, therefore, no feeling of shame. It could look 
the tallest angel in the face and reach out its little 
arms to receive the angelic embrace. As pure as 
the driven snow, as white as any angel that sings 
round the throne of God — this is the child nature. 
I do not deny that there are evil tendencies inher- 
ited by the child, but they are tendencies which 
have not become evil. 

OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM. 

Monstrous, indeed, is the doctrine of infant de- 
pravity, in the light of that sublime utterance of 
Jesus Christ, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven." 
Who can look into the clear, innocent eyes of a babe 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

and not feel the truth of that line of Wordsworth, 
"Heaven lies around us in our infancy"? Who 
can doubt but that babyhood brings down to earth 
some of the blue sky, and comes to us trailing clouds 
of glory? Concerning an infant, he has sung, "We 
could not wish her whiter here, who perfumed with 
pure blossoms the house — a lovely thing to wear 
upon a mother's bosom." 

Let us keep in mind the fact that the child 
nature is a revelation of the divine nature. Stand- 
ing in the presence of the child, we feel the glow of 
another world, and the touch of baby fingers calls 
forth all that is tenderest and purest and noblest 
in human nature. Music thrills us or soothes us. 
A great thought challenges us and dominates us, 
but the child comes into our lives as music, as 
thought, as sunshine, as the very breath of flowers. 
The child is the miracle of Eden repeated, a new 
creation fresh from the hand of God, and no angel 
in Heaven is cleaner or whiter or purer. 

With this thought in mind we are prepared to 
understand somewhat that great utterance of the 
great Teacher, ' ' Except ye be converted and become 
as little children ye can not enter into the kingdom 
of heaven." 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



SEEK A PURE SELF. 

But how can we become like little children? 
We can not recover lost innocence. Gone forever 
is the tender grace of a day that is dead. The gates 
of Eden are closed and the naming Angel of Ex- 
perience stands guard. We can not recover lost 
purity. Sin has left its indelible imprint upon our 
nature, and into our experience has come that which 
is foul and that which is unclean ; and, sometimes, as 
we think of that bright yesterday, with its white- 
ness, with its purity, there comes to us a great long- 
ing, if only it could become real, "Wash me and 
cleanse me and make me whiter than snow." Cer- 
tainly we can not become like little children in their 
credulity, for we must use the minds which God 
has given us in dealing with the problems which 
confront us. Nor can we become like children in 
their helplessness and their dependence, for the 
trumpet has sounded and the battle is on, and 
strong arms and steady nerves and manly courage 
are indispensable in winning the victory. How 
shall we become like little children? Is there any 
other way than the putting forth of honest and 
earnest endeavor to recover, in some fashion, this 
divine image which is inherent in the child nature, 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

and which we still possess, although dishonored 
and effaced and blurred? 

A very pathetic story is told by the biographer 
of Emerson, to the effect that, on one occasion, he 
was observed by his daughter gazing in reverie out 
upon his garden, and his daughter said to him: 
"Father, what are you looking for?" and he made 
answer in simple and yet pathetic fashion: "I am 
looking for myself." The old self that could flash 
and flame, the splendid self, with its keen intuitions, 
with its marvelous wisdom, was gone, and the feeble 
old man was looking for that lost self. What is 
religion but the earnest endeavor on the part of 
a man who has lost the divine image or has allowed 
that image to become effaced, and is seeking to 
recover it? 

We are looking for that self which in the child is 
clean and pure and white, and which must be re- 
covered in the man with the added elements of 
character and experience. 

CHILDHOOD POSSIBILITIES. 

Furthermore, Christianity honors childhood be- 
cause of its possibilities. The child is life in the 
bud, life unfolding; life with all of its vast possi- 
bilities. Interested friends gazed upon the tiny form 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

of the infant, John the Baptist, and wonderingly 
inquired, What manner of child shall this be? and 
so, all parents, as they receive this great gift from 
the loving God, dream of the future of this wonder- 
ful creature in their arms. "By what astrology of 
fear and hope dare I to cast thy horoscope?" So 
thought a young mother of the Southland as she 
rocked the cradle in which slept her first-born. 
With the flowers about her and the birds singing 
in her ears and in her heart, she dreamed of a splen- 
did future for this child of divine love. The years 
come and go; the child grows to young manhood; 
is sent to college and to a university, and there forms 
the accursed appetite for strong drink. One day, 
frenzied and mad, under the spell of the awful 
demon, he slew a man; he was tried; he was sen- 
tenced; he was executed. It was too much for the 
brain of this mother. She became insane, and she 
sat all day long by the empty cradle rocking it and 
crooning a lullaby in ears that heard not. Empty 
was the cradle and dark was her soul. 

Oh, the future of the child ! Shall he be a Nero, 
the nightmare of history, or a Paul, the humble 
disciple of the Christ? What manner of child shall 
this be? 

This is an age of the child. It is the age of the 
kindergarten; it is the age of juvenile courts; it is 

14 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

the age of newsboys' homes and houses of reform; 
it is the age of legal protection for childhood ; it is 
an age when child-life is being more scientifically 
studied than ever before in all the history of the 
world. Christianity is responsible for this change. 
The child is the citizen and Christian of to-morrow. 
As the child is, so the coming age will be. Shall it 
help to bring in the glories seen by prophet and 
seer, or shall the old world move onward unto night ? 
Awful is the responsibility which rests upon those 
who are entrusted with child-life. May God give 
them the grace to discharge that responsibility in 
his fear and in the light of possibilities of childhood. 
Mrs. Browning sung long ago a song that stirred 
the heart of America — the Cry of the Children : 

' ' Do you not hear the children weeping, 

Oh, my brothers, ere the sorrow comes with years ? 

They lean their young heads against their mothers, 
But this can not stop their tears." 

When we think of the child laboring, whether in 
the factory, or in the cotton fields of the South, we 
feel like echoing that other line in her poem: 

"The sob of the child in the silence 
Curses deeper than the strong man in his wrath." 

Woe be unto the man who builds up his fortune 
on the blood and happiness of childhood — whose 

15 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

gold is piled up at the expense of buried innocence. 
In our Declaration of Independence, we are fond of 
descanting upon the inalienable rights of man. The 
child has inalienable rights: the right to parental 
love, the right to legal protection, the right to sing 
as the bird, the right to be happy, the right to lay 
hold of opportunities provided for him for his free 
and spontaneous and full development. To rob 
the child of those rights is to dishonor the character 
of our liberties, as well as to call down upon us the 
curse of Jesus Christ. It were better for such a 
man that a millstone were hanged about his neck 
and that he were buried in the depths of the sea ! 

Christianity has to a large extent emancipated 
childhood. The old Roman and Greek poets do not 
even so much as mention mother. Such an affec- 
tionate character as Horace makes no reference to 
childhood. Evidently, childhood under the Greek 
and Roman civilization was dishonored or ignored 
or largely subordinated ; but, to-day, the child looms 
up large and splendid against the horizon; for the 
child is the future church — the child is the future 
nation. 

REVEALS DIVINE FATHERHOOD. 

In concluding this sermon, I want to speak of 
the child as a revelation of the divine fatherhood. 

16 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

"Unto us a son is born, unto us a child is given." 
This is the refrain through the ages of that splendid 
anthem that the angels sung long ago on the plains 
of Judea. Through the child we come to know the 
father. The human relationship of the child and 
father enables us to understand the character of the 
relationship which exists between God and his chil- 
dren. Our God is no Jove whose brow is clothed 
with thunder, no Moloch who needs to be placated 
with human sacrifice. Our God is a loving, tender, 
compassionate, heavenly Father, and Jesus has 
given to us the very sweetest words in all literature 
when he taught his disciples to pray, "Our Father 
who art in heaven." That was a new revelation. 
That was a revolutionary doctrine. Never before 
had the great word been spoken with the emphasis 
and accent given by Jesus Christ. Whereas in the 
Old Testament the word father occurs perhaps twice, 
in the New Testament it occurs no less than 200 
times. Jesus has associated, in his teaching, with 
his fatherhood all that is beautiful in nature and in 
life, and elevated it up to such an entrance as to-day 
makes it impossible for us to accept any hard the- 
ology that would exalt his sovereignty at the expense 
of his love. God is our father. This is the image 
of the child Jesus. When the years press heavily 

17 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

upon us and the form becomes bowed, and intima- 
tions and suggestions of various sorts remind us that 
the day is drawing to a close, and that the shadows 
of the last night are gathering, wonderful is the pro- 
vision of divine grace in the particular that we be- 
come children again. Paul, the rugged, virile apos- 
tle, when in a tender mood, trying to make his peo- 
ple understand the goodness and graciousness of 
God, uses the language of the nursery, and we hear 
him exclaim: "Abba, Father!" or "Papa, papa!" 
We are children again. 

GRIP OUR HANDS. 

The story is told of an old Scotchman that when 
he was dying — a man who had never worn his heart 
upon his sleeve — that he said in his wanderings, re- 
curring again to his Scotch dialect, ' ' I am gaen doon ; 
hae a grup o' my hand." So, in that last hour, 
when the grand rush of darkness shall come in upon 
our souls, we shall reach up our hands, not to some 
abstract principle called sweetness and light, but we 
shall reach up our hands through the darkness to 
the hands of a Father, and we shall say, "Father, 
we are going down; have a grip of our hands." 

May this Christmas time bring gladness to all 
the children in this city we love, and, if you can make 

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Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

bright one life, the life of a child, regard the oppor- 
tunity as a very angel of God to be seized and wel- 
comed with eagerness and enthusiasm. Let us 
make the bridge between babyhood and manhood 
just as long as possible, for soon enough we shall 
exchange the flowers and the crown for the sword 
and the spear. 

I wish you, my friends, a merry, merry Christ- 
mas and a happy, happy New Year; and the secret 
of it shall be for you and for me that we love and 
honor the children. 



19 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



MID-WINTER. 

BY MADISON CAWEIN. 

All day the clouds hung ashen with the cold ; 

And through the snow the muffled waters fell ; 

The day seemed drowned in grief too deep to tell, 

Like some old hermit whose last bead is told. 

At eve the wind woke, and the snow-clouds rolled 

Aside to leave the fierce sky visible ; 

Harsh as an iron landscape of wan hell 

The dark hills hung framed in with gloomy gold. 

And then, towards night, the wind seemed some 

one at 
My window wailing: now a little child 
Crying outside the door; and now the long 
Howl of some starved beast down the flue. I sat 
And knew 'twas Winter with his madman song 
Of miseries, whereon he stared and smiled. 




REV. FRANCIS R. BEATTIE. 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



A MEDITATION. 

For the New Year. 

by francis r. beattie, ph. d., d. d., ll. d. 

The fires of the Old Year have died out, and the 
ashes lie cold upon the hearth. Out of these ashes 
rise the fires of the New Year. As we muse and 
meditate, the fires begin to burn. 

We muse upon the flight of time, and meditate 
on our own fast passing days. Oh! Time, thou 
subtle thing, which ever puzzles the philosopher, 
thou shoreless sea which bears us on to the eternity 
to which thee, thyself, dost belong! We can not 
know thee as thou art, and yet with thee we ever 
have to do. The cycle of another of thy years 
has rolled around, and we have been carried with 
it ! Oh ! Time, whence art thou, and whither goest 
thou? 

And oh, Life, how strange thou art! How 
much of mystery there is about thee! Wherein 
is thy deep meaning? To live is to think, to feel, 
to speak, to act. It is to hope and fear, to love 
and hate, to toil and rest, to serve and suffer. Oh ! 
who can fathom the mysteries which are hidden 

21 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

in the secret places of every life, all along the way, 
till it goes hence! 

And oh! the tragedy of life. How, in its 
fabric, joy and sorrow, mirth and tears, burden 
and blessing, meeting and parting, delight and 
anguish, success and failure, are all so strangely 
woven together, as the warp and woof of the web 
of each life ! 

Through the past year, what has life been to 
us and ours? An ode divine, with its metre far 
from perfect, yet with the pathos of true poetry 
pulsing through it all? A penitential psalm; often 
sung in broken accents, yet ever set to the key- 
note of deep contrition for our faults and failures? 
An anthem of praise; set perchance many a time 
in the minor key, yet always with the music of 
grateful joy running through it all? A hymn of 
humble trust; though with the faith often weak 
and trembling, yet never utterly failing to cling 
to the promises of God as the future is faced? 

Then what is life to be and bring to us in the 
coming year? Well it is that the future is hidden 
from us by the veil of to-morrow. May it bring 
much of brightness and blessing, though there 
may be some heartaches and perhaps a few tears. 
Is life during the coming year to be barren or 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

fruitful, useless or useful, a burden or a blessing, 
full of gladness or touched with sadness? Is life 
to be like an empty vessel, driven rudderless, and 
buffeted mercilessly upon the rough sea of cruel 
circumstance? Or shall it not rather be like a 
richly freighted ship, guided securely on its stress- 
ful voyage by a pilot who never loses a ship — for 
even the winds and the sea obey him? 

Life is well worth living. It may be filled with 
gladness and laden with blessing. Yes, life may 
have music and sunshine in it, even though it has 
its trials and its tears; for the trials may but put 
a deeper pathos into the music, and the sunshine 
may stretch the rainbow across the fast falling 
tears. 

Look up and be of good cheer. The sun does 
shine overhead, even though the mists hang heavy 
over the vales of earth. Then, may your life be, 
through the coming year, like the joyous lark 
soaring high in early morning to greet the bright- 
ness of the rising sun with its cheerful song. Then, 
too, will all the nooks and corners of life be filled 
with a fragrance as of many flowers, and all its 
activities make music as of many waters. 

Beware lest life become luxurious and sensuous. 
Such a life puts no bit into the mouth of the appe- 

23 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

tites. It throws the reins loose upon the neck of 
the passions. It never puts the brakes upon self- 
indulgence. It tarries long at the table laden 
with delicacies. It lies long upon the couch of 
ease. It loves to make a grand display; and it 
clothes itself in purple and fine linen every day. 

Let yonder epicure warn us. He finds that 
richer viands, sweeter delicacies, grander displays, 
and keener delights are ever needed by him to 
sustain the pleasure, or produce the delight. Then, 
in the end, the senses grow dull, the fountain of 
delight runs dry, another very capacity for joy 
dies out, never to return. The life once turned to 
pleasure has turned to pain, so that its once merry 
music has become as a funeral dirge, which is ready 
to die away as a sigh in the silence of the tomb. 

And, like sleepless sentinels on the outposts of 
life, let us stand guard against the selfish life. 
Believe it, the less you think of self in a selfish 
way the more others will think of you, another 
nearer you will come to be like Him who came 
not to be ministered to but to minister. Forget 
not that in the true life, to give out is to grow 
rich, and to withhold is to become poor. The 
selfish life is cold and repellant; the unselfish life 
is warm and attractive. The one is as a winter 

24 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

blast, the other as a summer breeze. The one is 
like a refrigerator, the other like a radiator. The 
one affects only what is in it, the other blesses all 
that is about it. The one sings a sweet song to 
woo us to her side, the other utters notes so harsh 
that we hurry from her presence. 

Get up on the highlands of life and look out 
upon its larger landscapes from lofty places. Then 
will you breathe the purer air of unselfishness, 
and see your own life and the lives of others in 
their proper perspective. Have planted deep down 
in the subsoil of your soul the wholesome plants of 
the unselfish life. Then water and cherish them, 
cultivate the soil about them, and, if need be, 
prune them, and, in due time, you may be sure 
that you will see the beautiful bloom and gather 
the savory fruit. 

Lay hold anew of this temper of life with the 
opening of the year. Then life will be a psalm 
and a song, a sermon and a homily, making glad 
and doing good on every hand. Such a life will 
be the rich and happy life, the wholesome and 
expanding life, the useful and beautiful life, the 
steady another balanced life, the fragrant another 
fruitful life. From early morning till its evening 
hour, it is all sunshine and blessing. 

25 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

Above all, in character be strong and true, 
candid and upright, sincere and unselfish. Be like 
the rugged oak, in the fibre of your inflexible integ- 
rity ; be like the stately palm in the noble dignity 
of your bearing among men. Be like the shapely 
linden, in the beauty and fragrance of your daily 
conduct. Be like the bending willow, in the love 
and sympathy of your soul. Then will you be as 
trees which the Lord hath planted. 



2( 




COL. J. STODDARD JOHNSTON. 




Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



A SUMMER SUNSET. 

BY J. STODDARD JOHNSTON. 

It was the last of all the summer days. 
The glowing sun was lost behind a cloud 
Which stretched along the west horizon, 
Deep blue in darkness, while the sky above 
And all around was clear, save here and there 
Were slowly drifting clouds of lesser size, 
As sloops and schooners, while at intervals 
A man-of-war ploughed stately through the deep. 
The greater cloud, athwart the western sky, 
Which hid the sun and seemed a mountain range, 
With wooded slopes and rugged peaks of stone, 
Soon startled into life and was ablaze 
In parts where lately all was dark and blue. 
Along its rugged crest, from north to south, 
It suddenly appeared as silver-bound, 
And brighter grew, until a golden glow 
Succeeded to the silvern sheen ; and then, 
Turret and dome and every crag and peak 
Shone forth as if illumined for a feast, 
While, still, the great cloud's base was darker grown, 
Making the sun's reflected glow more bright 

27 



Beautiful Tkoidgkts of Noble Men 

By contrast with the screen which hid his face, 

As when, by night, the pyrotechnic fires 

Shine all the brighter for night's inky pall. 

Then, as if to burst the bonds which held him, 

The sun shot up his banded rays to heaven, 

As 'twere a halo from his dying face, 

Or as the last fond look of Summer's day. 

And all the lesser clouds that roamed the sky 

Paused in their flight and gave his image back, 

As if in adoration at his death. 

'Twas but a moment's pause, in splendor robed, 

When all was changed from gold to purple tint, 

And twilight, with a gentle breeze, set in. 

The clouds resumed their march in sober gray 

And the new moon, whose pale and crescent face 

Had not till then been scarcely visible, 

Shone forth as sole refulgence of the sun 

Where late all else was lit with golden light. 

The day was gone, the summer's glow was fled, 

And night was ushered in through Autumn's gate. 



28 




DR. T. T. EATON. 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



A CHRISTMAS SERMON. 

BY REV. T. T. EATON, D. D. 

Matt. 1:21. "Thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his 
people from their sins." 

When God was about to give Abraham the 
child of promise, he said, ''Thou shall call his name 
Isaac," or "one who laughs," indicating that his 
birth would cause great joy. Again, when Eliza- 
beth and Zachariah were old and stricken in years, 
an angel announced to Zachariah, "Thy wife 
Elizabeth shall bear thee a son and thou shall call 
his name John," which means the gift of God. 
And now the angel comes to Joseph and foretells 
the birth of him "of whom Moses in the law, and 
the prophets did write," saying, "Thou shall call 
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from 
their sins." The name Jesus had been common 
among the Jews ever since the time of their great 
general, for Joshua and Jesus are the same. Since 
the time of our Saviour, this name, from the very 
reverence men feel for it, has not been used as an 
appellation, and you now know of no one named 
Jesus, though Isaac and John and James and 
Thomas, and other Scripture names, abound. This 

29 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

name Jesus is above every name, and mankind by- 
common consent have placed it above every other. 
Here, the appellation is descriptive of the 
character. Jesus means Saviour, and was bestowed 
upon the incarnate Son of God "because he shall 
save his people from their sins." He came "to 
seek and to save that which was lost." He said 
of himself, "I came not to judge the world, but 
to save the world." His forerunner announced 
him as the "Lamb of God who taketh away the 
sins of the world." As he hung upon the cross 
his enemies cried out, "He saved others," thus 
acknowledging that his mission was salvation. 
His Apostles went out to tell mankind of a Saviour 
whom God had provided, and said, "Him had God 
exalted to be a prince and a Saviour to give repent- 
ance and remission of sins." Of all the many 
names given to Christ in the Scriptures, this of Jesus 
comes closest to our hearts. There is no loftier 
experience for a human soul in this world than 
to realize that Jesus is indeed his Saviour, and 
in the world to come the noblest strain in all the 
glad song of redemption will be, "Unto him that 
hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his 
own blood and made us kings and priests unto 
God, to him be glory and domination forever." 

30 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

"He shall save." This is the most distinctive 
mark of the Christian religion, because it points 
out a personal Saviour. Christianity is personal 
in the sense that every man must accept it for 
himself, and it is also personal in that its doctrines 
and precepts all gather about a person — Jesus. 
il He shall save his people from their sins." Chris- 
tianity never saved a soul, but Christ saves. The 
Buddhist, the Brahmin, the Confucianist, and the 
Mohammedan think they will be saved because of 
their faithful adherence to their respective systems 
and observance of their requirements. But no 
man is saved because he believes the Bible and 
seeks to do what the Bible teaches; but simply 
because of a personal relation established by the 
Holy Spirit between his soul and Jesus Christ. 
Christianity, as a system, has wrought wonders in 
the world — indeed like the sun it came into the 
world heralded by its own rays; but, as a system, 
it never saved a soul, nor does it pretend to save 
men. There are not wanting men, however, who 
claim that performance of certain duties does bring 
salvation ; but those who thus think, miss the mean- 
ing of our holy religion, and put it merely on a 
level with the many other religions with which it 
finds itself in conflict in the world. 

31 



rifl 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

Jesus says to the twelve, "If ye believe in God 
believe also in Me." "I am the way, the truth 
and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but 
by Me." "If ye love Me, keep my command- 
ments." "I am the vine, ye are the branches. 
He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same 
bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can 
do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast 
forth as a branch and is withered; and men gather 
him and cast him into the fire and they are burned. 
If ye abide in Me and my words abide in you, ye 
shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto 
you." "These things have I spoken unto you 
that in Me ye might have peace." In his sacerdotal 
prayer the Saviour said, "I pray not for the world, 
but for them which thou hast given Me." His 
command is, "Follow Me." "He that believeth 
in Me, though he were dead yet shall he live." 
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
should not perish but have everlasting life." 

You will notice all through these Scriptures 
that belief in Christianity, important as that is, 
is not what is enjoined, but belief in Christ. It is 
true that no man who rejects Christianity as a sys- 
tem will exercise faith in a personal Jesus, but it 

32 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

is also true that a man may, as thousands do, 
believe in the Christian religion and yet be "in the 
gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." 
The man who is united to Christ by a living faith 
is not going to quibble at miracles, or at Providence, 
or any of the great doctrines of the Christian sys- 
tem. The Apostles clearly understood the personal 
relation that all his people must sustain to Jesus, 
for they speak of being "one with him," "joint 
heirs with him" to the heavenly inheritance 
adopted into God's family. Now, a man does not 
become a member of your family by wearing the 
family coat of arms and accepting the family 
beliefs. No more can one become a member of 
God's family by accepting the truths of Chris- 
tianity and wearing the external signs of the house- 
hold of faith. 

It is written of the early disciples that "daily 
in the temple and in every house they ceased not 
to preach' ' — theology ? doctrines ? Christianity ? nay — 
but ' ' Jesus Christ. ' ' ' ' Philip went down to Samaria, 
and preached Christ unto them." Saul went to 
Damascus with authority from the chief priests 
to bind all that called on Christ's name. Peter 
preached Christ to the congregation gathered in 
Cornelius' house, and said, "To him gave all the 

33 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

prophets witness that through his name, whoso- 
ever believeth in Him shall receive remission of 
sins." Paul told the people of Antioch in Pisidia, 
' ' Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, 
that through His name is preached unto you the 
forgiveness of sins." The same Apostle answered 
the Philippian jailer's question, "What must I 
do to be saved?" with "Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house." 
Again at Athens, the center of the world's philoso- 
phy, and the seat of the world's learning, Paul did 
not labor to show the fallacy of their belief, or that 
Christianity was better than their religion, but he 
preached "Jesus and the resurrection." And in 
writing to Rome, the seat of the world's power and 
the center of its wealth, the great Apostle tells 
them, "We are buried with Christ by baptism." 
Do not misunderstand me and suppose that I 
would under-rate the importance of sound doctrine. 
I know how vital God's truth is. But I would 
impress upon you the great fact that Jesus is the 
personal Saviour of all the redeemed. "He shall 
save his people from their sins." Christianity 
never saved a man, but Christ has saved millions. 
"He shall save his people from their sins," not 
from trouble or pain, or sickness or sorrow. He 

34 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

has promised to sustain them in every trial, and 
given them the pledge that all things shall work 
together for their good. It may seem strange to 
you that pious people should be allowed to suffer. 
Look about you and see the distress into which 
many of God's people are plunged; while many 
who are wicked seem to flourish and prosper — and 
you wonder, as did the Psalmist. The Bible 
nowhere promises that piety will make men rich 
or powerful, or free them from infirmity and disease. 
It is true that piety does conduce to long life. The 
average life of ministers of the gospel is greater 
than that of any other class of men. It is true 
that vice shortens life, and the Scriptures declare 
"the wicked shall not live out half their days," 
but health and power and wealth are by no means 
necessary accompaniments of piety. If you violate 
the laws of health, your religion will not save you 
from the effects of your imprudence. If I put my 
hand in the fire, all the piety possible would not 
prevent my getting burned. 

So, for wealth and power there are certain 
principles that govern these things to which, if a 
man will conform, he will attain success, though 
he be a sinner, and from which, if he deviate, he will 
fail, though he be a saint. There is a Providence 

35 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

in the affairs of men. God will allow no man to 
lose because of what he does for Christ's sake-^will 
bless him in all sorrow and trial and sanctify every 
affliction to his spiritual good. But being a Chris- 
tian does not secure worldly prosperity — and with 
good reason, too, for if it did, men would seek to 
become Christians from unworthy motives. If to 
become a child of God made a man rich, or gave him 
social position, we would have ten hypocrites in 
the church where now we have one. 

"He shall save his people from their sins" — 
yes, from their sins, not from sorrow, not from suf- 
fering, pain, and woe, but from sin. Nothing should 
distress us but sin ; and if we rose to the height of 
faith, where it is our privilege to stand, we would 
be grieved at nothing but sin. What we call 
trouble, if it contain no sin, is really blessing, and 
should make us happy instead of miserable. It is 
sin that destroys men's souls; sin that alienates 
from God; sin that crucifies Jesus. Trouble and 
sickness might have been banished from the world 
without the death of Christ; all the consequences 
of our deeds might have been visited upon us in 
eternity — but God saw that was not best, and he 
sent shadow into the world along with sunshine, 
till shadows vanish in eternal day. 

36 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

Jesus saves from sin, is a truth needing sorely 
to be impressed on men's minds. Men desire a 
Saviour who will save from punishment hereafter; 
and so they think they do not need salvation till 
death; for then they expect the punishment to 
begin. They do not desire to be saved from sin. 
They love sin, and think it a great hardship to be 
required to abstain from its corruption. Their 
diseased moral nature feeds on rottenness, and has 
no taste for the bread of life. Men do not want 
to be cured, but simply want to be made com- 
fortable and to feel safe for the hereafter. Now, 
the Bible offers no such Saviour as that. Jesus 
saves from sin, and till men desire to be free from 
sin, Christ has nothing to offer. To make the 
wicked comfortable was no part of our Lord's 
mission; nay, it is written plainly "there is no 
peace to the wicked." Ah, my friends, it is sin 
that dims your vision and dulls your hearing, sin 
that drives you from God, sin that is destroying 
your soul and dragging you into the bottomless 
pit — will you not come to this Jesus who saves 
from sin? It is a present salvation you need; 
not one at death; and a salvation from sin, rather 
than from punishment. 

He saves his people from their sins; and this 
not simply when they repent and trust him, but 

37 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

all along the line of their lives. We need Jesus 
every day to save us from our sins. We are prone 
to wander from him and to stain our souls with 
guilt ; and we need a daily application of the aton- 
ing blood for our cleansing. We are regenerated 
but once, but we are prone to sin ever; when we 
think we stand firmly is the very time we fall 
most grievously. Oh, brethren, let us pray God 
ceaselessly to keep us from sin, to guide us in 
holiness here, and to crown us in glory hereafter. 
Let us have Jesus ever with us, and let us live 
him, act him, talk him; let us be full of Christ, 
as was Paul, who in twelve verses refers to him 
thirteen times — let him indeed be our life, for our 
lives should be "hid with Christ in God." Let 
us humble our hearts before him, cherish love for 
his people, manifest devotion to him by keeping 
all his commandments, and long to be with him. 
All that intellect can admire, reason approve, and 
heart love, is found in Jesus. All the rays of the light 
of God's wisdom and of the warmth of his love 
are by Jesus, as a lens, gathered to a focus, making 
Calvary the brightest and the hottest place to be 
found: the brightest, for the light streaming from 
the Cross illumines the darkest recesses of earth 
and dazzles the seraphim with its brilliance, and 

38 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

the hottest, both with God's wrath and with his 
love; with his wrath, "My God, my God, why hast 
thou forsaken me!" — with his love, "Father, forgive 
them, they know not what they do." Here the 
hardest hearts have been melted, and here the 
darkest should have been illuminated. 

"Sweetest note in seraph song, 
Sweetest sound on mortal tongue, 
Sweetest carol ever sung, 
Jesus — Jesus flows along." 



39 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



"LEST WE FORGET." 

BY REV. S. S. WALTZ, D. D. 

The holly and the evergreen mean far more than 
a mere decoration. They tell again the story that 
never grows old. Lest we forget the fountain from 
which flows life's purest joys, Christmas comes once 
a year. Amidst a world of worry and its warring 
discords, we might almost lose the keynote of the 
angel's song, if again and again we did not hear the 
sweet refrain, "Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men." 
Every Christmastide memory carries us back to the 
cradle in the manger, the shepherds and the wise 
men, the star and the heaven-born song. Thus 
again, through all our life until the eternal Christ- 
mas dawns, there comes a new life to our love, a 
new thrill to our hope, and a new song in our hearts. 
The brightest fires of life, sometimes burning low, 
are new enkindled then. The holiest memories of 
my life cluster round the Christmas tree in my 
childhood's home. We've scattered far and wide, 
and voices that sang with us the carols then and 
there, are silent here and now. For a day, Christmas 
memories carry me back to childhood's paradise; 

40 




REV. S. S. WALTZ. 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

and, lo, I return to my own dear home to-day with 
a younger, kinder, happier heart. 

Father, mother, brother, sister, home and wife, 
earth's holiest words, have a higher, deeper meaning 
when again we remember how Jesus was born and 
lived and loved in a human home. 

Lest we forget that our mission in this world is, 
not to be ministered unto, but to minister, Christ- 
mas reminds us of the sublimely unselfish life. When 
the Christ-child was born, the world's heart was 
cold and selfish. Men and women wept over their 
own sorrows, but not another's. Then a new spring 
of life and love was opened in the human heart. 
Touched by his magic hand, a new chord was placed 
in each human breast. It echoed the notes of joy 
or sorrow that sounded in another's heart. Not a 
child of need or pain but is my kin, when I remem- 
ber Him who all his life went about doing good. 
Since He taught me to pray "Our Father," I 
am my brother's keeper. Since He said each spar- 
row is His care, birds and beasts have kinder 
care from men. Far up in the cold northland, in 
each Christian farmer's yard is a pole erected, to 
the top of which is bound a large full sheaf of grain. 
Why is this? Oh, they say, that is for the birds, 
the little wild birds ; they must have a merry Christ- 

41 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

mas too, you know. And so it is, the whole world 
of God's creatures grows kinder, better, happier, 
because Christmas comes once a year. 

Lest we forget that He came to conquer a world 
of hearts and homes by love, Christmas comes to 
remind us how every year since the wise men fol- 
lowed the star to the manger, his glad realm is 
widening. Hope grows brighter and the victory is 
nearer. It was the midnight darkness of sin and 
self when a gleam of light fell on Bethlehem's 
plain. From sad and anxious hearts in every land 
the inquiry came: "Watchman, tell us of the night, 
what its signs of promise are." At Christmas time 
the answer came: "O'er yon mountain's height, 
see that glory beaming star." 

The years of Christ move grandly on. Increas- 
ing millions join the chorus and sing to heaven 
and back to earth the triumphant notes, "Higher 
yet that star ascends." 

With all its sins and sorrows, the world of human- 
kind is getting better. Never since the first Christ- 
mas dawn were so many kind hearts and helping 
hands at work as to-day. The cry of need, let it 
come from near or far, meets somewhere in a sym- 
pathetic heart a quick response. An age of money- 
making has ushered in a golden age of giving. The 

42 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

love of right, oft trampled down, is more alive to- 
day than in all time's centuries. Old empires of 
sin and oppression are crumbling, and on their 
ruins, nations are to be builded that recognize the 
claims of God and man. Clouds of heathen dark- 
ness are yielding to the light of heaven's truth. 
Ignorance is giving way before the march of uni- 
versal education. Hail ! bells of Christmas morn ! 

' ' Ring in the valiant man and free, 
The larger heart, the kindlier hand ; 
Ring out the darkness of the land, 
Ring in the Christ that is to be." 



43 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



WHEN CHRIST, THE LORD OF GLORY, CAME. 

BY WILLIAM F. WOOD. 

Sweet sleeps the royal infant in his humble bed of 
straw, 
And bright the glory shining there the awe- 
struck shepherds saw; 
And little dreamed the passers-by, who came and 
went all day, 
That in that poor but holy bed the Lord of 
Glory lay. 

There, shining with a luster-light that mortals may 
not know, 
Was born this holy infant in the lily's beauty 
glow; 
The grace of whose sweet coming was as manna to 
the soul, 
When clouds of sorrow lower and when waves 
of trouble roll. 



44 




WM. F. WOOD. 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

Hosanna to the Lord of Life, who gave that babe 
to win, 
From sorrow and the blight of death, the world 
that we are in ; 
And glory to the Lord of Hosts, whose gift of love 
doth glow, 
Whiter than earth's ten thousand fields in their 
celestial snow. 

Rejoice, ye sons of men, rejoice, for hope has ban- 
ished fear — 
His glory fills the whole round world — redemp- 
tion draweth near, 
And brighter yet the stars shall shine, richer the 
earth shall be, 
For He has given a love to us vaster than all 
the sea. 

The mountains rear their peaks on high, the raging 
billows roar, 
And thunders rock the gray old earth and 
crash from shore to shore; 
But mightier far than these, the love, purest and 
last and best, 
That came when Christ, the infant, clung to 
Mary's loving breast. 



45 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



CHRISTMAS AS AN ANNIVERSARY. 

BY T. H. 

Have you ever thought why it is that so impor- 
tant an event as the birth of Jesus has been per- 
mitted or contrived to drop entirely out of memory? 
And why it is the world has now no image of him, 
either on canvas or in stone? Do you think this is 
an accident? But what matter for the date? The 
important thing is not when he came, but that he 
came. 

And why? To build again the walls of Eden, torn 
down by disobedience. To lift the soul, buried in 
sorrow and in sin. To place a torch within the 
tomb, and scatter flowers where before was only 
death and desolation. 

The serpent had beguiled the woman; her seed 
must bruise the serpent's head. Moses foresaw a 
prophet like unto himself; the manger answered to 
the floating cradle, and the Lamb of God replaced 
the Paschal Lamb of history. From dark Egypt 
Moses led his people to the open; from a greater 
darkness Jesus leads his people to a broader life. 
Moses gave a law we could not keep. Jesus came 
to keep it for us. Moses wrote his law on stone, 
which might be broken but not bent; Jesus writes 

46 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

his law upon the human heart, which, though yield- 
ing often when it should not, still turns toward him, 
as the needle, sometimes influenced by magnetic 
rocks, yet in the main points steadily toward its 
polar star. Moses painted for the world a god of 
wrath; Jesus, taking up the brush, retouched the 
portrait, disclosed a Father in the God, and changed 
the wrath to love. To Gentile and to Jew religion 
was a puzzle; Jesus came, a child, made clear the 
wonder, and resolved the puzzle. Moses pressed with 
crushing weight upon the sinner; Jesus came to lift 
the burden for him. Moses said, the soul that sin- 
neth it shall die; Jesus said, the soul that cometh 
unto me shall live. To the faint and falling, Moses 
almost closed the door of hope; Jesus came and 
threw the door wide open . The ' ' shalls ' ' of Moses and 
" shall nots" frighten and repel ; the invitations of the 
Christ allure, attract, and woo. For ages God, the 
terrible, had been unseen; Jesus drew the curtain 
back, and lo! the Great, the Infinite, the Terrible, 
was Love. Jesus with the sick, Jesus at the grave, 
Jesus teaching a poor woman at the well — how beau- 
tiful! Even though, as God, he is forgotten, his 
divinity denied, who can help loving him, and how 
much more the sinner than the saint! This, then, 
is my Christmas letter. 

47 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



CHRISTMAS, THE HEIGHT. 

BY BERT FINCK. 

Christmas is the triumph of sentiment — the cor- 
onation of mystical truth by the angelic court of 
the human heart, which materialism tries in vain to 
destroy. 

For ages and ages the battle has raged — for ages 
and ages to come it will rage — between the strong 
forces of romance and song, and the clanking array 
of the world. Romance and song, or poetry, life, 
hope, height, simplicity, warred on forever by greed 
and by fear, doubt, death, artificiality. Singing 
armies of youth from the highlands of love, in con- 
flict with the spectres of age below, that hurl up 
missiles which fall back on themselves; for what 
comes from love can not be harmed. 

Years have naught to do with age. Methuselah 
may have been a boy ; it is only when the heart is 
crushed out that man is old and broken. Hence 
this war forever against the heart, by materialism 
or age, to seize the throne of sentiment and 
crown selfishness King. 

48 




BERT FINCK 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

But sentiment triumphs again and again; rep- 
resented by friendship, self-sacrifice, devotion to 
duty, that we see day by day, despite the hollow 
laughter of cynics; by pity and care for the miser- 
able — not only for human, but for the brute's dis- 
tress — and by worship of art and the beautiful in 
nature and in man. But the height of its triumph 
is Christmas, the coronation of truth — mystical 
truth. The truth that is too simple to understand ; 
the truth of childhood that never can die, with its 
dreams of hope, trust, heroism, compassion, guid- 
ance, charity, and victory of good over evil. Truth 
is the playfellow of childhood: sages fall from ex- 
haustion to the ground in searching for that which 
the child takes in his arms. Hence Christmas is but 
for the young — for the young whose eyes may be 
dim and heads be gray; the old creep away with 
envy and fear from a glory that they can not under- 
stand. And ideality, the real, reigns supreme. 

The air is filled with strains of lyrical weirdness, 
and golden stories float upon our dreams : once more 
our thoughts commune with our fancies, as when 
about the hearth they used to do. Again we see the 
light of glittering figures; the halo of the Christ- 
child blinds our eyes, and troops of beings from the 
land of fairies dance around us with the radiance of 

49 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

stars. They come in shapes of friends, almost for- 
gotten ; they come in shapes of duties, almost dead ; 
they come in shapes of sparkling inspiration to utter 
words of greeting and of cheer. They come in 
shapes of memories, almost stifled, that bring our 
lost selves back to their ideals ; they come in shapes 
of mercy and forgiveness and of longing prayers — 
to rebind broken ties ; they come in shapes of hopes 
which have almost faded, that frozen love will warm 
and bloom again. 

Above them all, we see the star and manger 
which tell of life and peace and worlds anew; the 
monarchs of the past kneel down in homage before 
divine simplicity and man; before wisdom and 
strength, beauty and riches, represented by a child 
— no more — a child. 

Christmas is the triumph of sentiment, the coro- 
nation of mystical truth, the glorification of child- 
hood, of song, of the human heart, of the natural 
above the unreal. Age is a spectre that passes 
away; youth lives forever — forever. 



50 




MADISON CAWEIN. 



Bewitiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



A CATCH. 

BY MADISON CAWEIN. 

When roads are mired with ice and snow, 
And the air of morn is crisp with rime ; 
When the holly hangs by the mistletoe, 
And bells ring in the Christmas time : — 
It's — Saddle, my Heart, and ride away, 
To the sweet-faced girl with the eyes of gray ! 
Who waits with a smile for the gifts you bring- 
A man's strong love and a wedding-ring — 
It's — Saddle, my Heart, and ride! 

When vanes veer North and storm-winds blow, 
And the sun of noon is a blur o'erhead; 
When the holly hangs by the mistletoe, 
And the Christmas service is sung and said: — 
It's — Come, O my Heart, and wait awhile, 
Where the organ peals, in the altar aisle, 
For the gifts that the church now gives to you- 
A woman's hand and a heart that's true. 
It's — Come, O my Heart, and wait! 

51 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

When rooms gleam warm with the fire's glow, 
And the sleet raps sharp on the window-pane ; 
When the holly hangs by the mistletoe, 
And Christmas revels begin again: — 
It's — Home, O my Heart, and love, at last! 
And her happy breast to your own held fast; 
A song to sing and a tale to tell, 
A good-night kiss, and all is well. 
It's — Home, O my Heart, and love! 



52 




REV. T. M. HAWES. 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



A PICTURE. 

BY REV. T. M. HAWES. 

One of the most impressive ways of perceiving 
the truth is to see it reflected from a picture. The 
mirror can be so skillfully held up to nature, in this 
way, that we are often able to see ourselves as in a 
glass. The value of a picture lies chiefly in its 
fidelity to truth, and the effect it has upon us de- 
pends, to no small extent, on how much it suggests 
of that which pertains to our own lives. What- 
ever of decided emotion it produces in us is mainly 
because we connect it with something in our own 
experience. You may look at a large number of 
pictures before finding one that brings the truth 
home to you; but, having found it, you will linger 
over it long and lovingly, and one such picture is 
worth a thousand of those that do not touch you. 
It may, perchance, be a very obscure one and en- 
tirely unattractive to others, but it is the picture 
for you, and no matter what others think of it, buy 
it, if it is for sale and your purse permits. 

I remember to have had the privilege of viewing 
a very fine collection of paintings, and, with cata- 

53 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

logue in hand, I often visited the gallery to study 
the pictures. I looked for a long time before find- 
ing one that reached my heart, and lo ! it was one of 
the smallest of all, and in a quiet corner, compara- 
tively unnoticed. What do you think it was? Not 
a fine mansion; not a beautiful face; not a pictur- 
esque landscape. Simply a little glimpse of a rough 
country road and an old tumbled-down rail fence. 
There were some bleak-looking trees, robbed of their 
leaves by the early frost and the sighing winds of 
autumn ; there was an old horse wearily picking his 
way along the rocky hillside and dragging an old- 
fashioned buggy, which looked as if it might go to 
pieces at any moment. Seated in the buggy was 
an aged man, whose face I could not see because 
his back was toward me, but I knew it must be a 
good, kind face, and one familiar to me. What a 
skillful stroke of the artist to let me imagine the 
face of the dear old man ! True art never exhausts 
the subject by realistic details, but ever leaves some- 
thing for the imagination of the beholder to fill out 
according to his own fancy. Trying to do too much 
is nearly always the mark of an amateur, not only 
in painting, but in other arts. 

Now this is all there was of the picture, but it 
was enough, and it was worth all the rest to me, for 

54 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

it flooded me with thought and feeling whenever I 
beheld it. I can not describe the strange charm, 
the powerful suggestiveness of that simple picture. 
It seemed to spread out before me the whole pano- 
rama of life, from boyhood to old age, from spring- 
time to autumn. It told of a summer that had 
faded, of a winter near at hand. It told of boyhood 
days along the country road, when the sun was 
shining and the birds were singing in the tree-tops; 
of youthful days when the heart leaped for joy at 
thoughts of love; of days of manly vigor when the 
step was firm and the purpose fixed ; and now this trio 
of horse, and buggy, and man, staggering and creak- 
ing and bent with age and long service, told that not 
far ahead was the end of their journey. Surely the 
old buggy can not stand the rough road much longer, 
nor the old horse have strength for many more miles 
of travel, and probably before the leaves put forth 
again the dear old man will be at rest. 

In our own lives, and their relations to those we 
love, are there not to be found the truths suggested 
by the picture? Have we not played along this 
road in the happy springtime of boyhood? Are not 
some of us now in the full-blown summer, which 
too soon must pass ? Are there not those who, like 
the dear old man in the picture, seem to be going 

55 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

away from us, and we can not stop them? Winter 
is near at hand, and their forms are too feeble for 
the rough road and the chilling wind. May we not 
hope that just beyond the brow of the hill, which 
forms the horizon in the picture, there is a happy 
home to which our aged friend is going? And may 
we not hope that just beyond the horizon, to which 
some of our loved ones seem so nearly drawn, there 
is for them, and finally for us, a still happier home, 
to which we are all going — a Christmas time, indeed, 
around the hearthstone of our Father's house on 
high? 



56 




DR. H. A. COTTELL. 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



BY THE FIRELIGHT. 

BY H. A. COTTELL, M. D. 

Before my slowly waning fire 

I muse alone to-night ; 
I see the smoldering brands expire 

In dim and ghostly light; 
While in each dying ray I see 
A type of that which burns in me. 

For I behold life's wasting flame 

Wax fainter day by day; 
And all in vain I would reclaim 

Its old accustomed play; 
But there is naught that can restore 
The hopes which fed that flame of yore. 

The blinding joys of early days 
In dazzling streamers broke, 

And young ambition fanned the blaze, 
But vanished like the smoke; 

Then love, awhile, within it burned, 

But, ah, how soon to ashes turned! 



57 




Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

All that I have or hope or prize 

Fall doomed upon the pyre; 
Awhile in radiant flames they rise, 

But perish in the fire; 
And, sinking down and smoldering slow, 
Give back a faint and ominous glow. 

Thou, whose all-quickening breath divine 

Didst fan to life this fire, 
O, may it not all vainly shine 

Ere its last ray expire ! 
But let its dying luster light 
And cheer some wanderer lost in night. 

And, when its ray shall cease to gleam 

On this benighted plain, 
O, may some quick celestial beam 

Rekindle it again! 
In realms on high its power restore, 
And make it shine forevermore. 



58 




HON. W. B. HALDEMAN. 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



CHRISTMAS GIFTS. 

BY W. B. HALDEMAN. 

The approach of Christmas, an occasion of good 
cheer and abundant feasts, is ever marked by a gen- 
erous throbbing of the heart — awakened to good 
impulses and pleasing memories. 

At such times, those who are blessed with the 
comforts of life should not forget the poor; but 
should remember that it is written down in the 
Scriptures that "The Lord loveth a cheerful giver." 

The stockings of the orphans and the penniless, 
hanging empty on a Christmas morn, in a Christmas 
land, while disappointment brings tears to innocent 
childhood, during a time of general gladness, seem 
at once a protest against thoughtlessness, a rebuke 
to selfishness, and an appeal to the higher impulses 
and sentiments of the human heart. 

Christmas is not only a festival ; it is not only a 
time for gift-giving; it is a time for thanks-giving, 
also ; for it commemorates the birth of the Christ- 
child, who came into the world as the Saviour of 
mankind, and who commanded that the Gospel, 

59 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

without money and without price, should be preached 
to the poor, and who proclaimed, "On earth peace, 
good will to men." In the need of that Gospel all 
men are poor; and in remembrance of this gracious 
gift to us — the greatest and most precious of all 
gifts — we should bestow good gifts upon the poor 
and needy, not only when Christmas comes, but at 
all opportune times; giving thanks, always, to the 
great Giver of all, for the inestimable privileges of 
education and liberty bestowed upon us in this 
advanced stage of civilization, and for the blessings 
of home and fireside and Christianizing influences 
vouchsafed to us, and to the people of our whole 
country, in this, the greatest century of the world's 
history. 



60 







CALE YOUNG RICE. 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



A JAPANESE MOTHER. 

(In Time of War.) 

by cale young rice. 

The young stork sleeps in the pine-tree tops, 
Down on the brink of the river. 
My baby sleeps by the bamboo copse — 
The bamboo copse where the rice-field stops : 
The bamboos sigh and shiver. 

The white fox creeps from his hole in the hill : 

I must pray to Inari. 

I hear her calling me low and chill — 

Low and chill when the wind is still 

At night, and the skies hang starry. 

And ever she says, "He's dead — he's dead! 
Your lord who went to battle ! 
How shall your baby now be fed — 
Ukibo fed, with rice and bread — 
What if I hush his prattle?" 



61 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

The red moon rises as I slip back, 

And the bamboo stems are swaying. 

Inari was deaf — and yet the lack, 

The fear and lack are gone — and the rack, 

I know not why, with praying. 

For though Inari cared not at all, 
Some other god was kinder. 
I wonder why he has heard my call — 
My giftless call — and what shall befall? 
Hope has but left me blinder. 



62 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



THE NEW YEAR. 

BY ISAAC T. WOODSON. 

Here's a smile and a tear for the New Year! 
In what will the New Year differ from the old? 
There will be sunshine and shadow. There will 
be songs, and sighs. There will be troth-plighting, 
and disappointment — Love's young dream, and 
mourning. There will be blooming health, and 
beds of affliction. There will be happy child- 
hood, and the cares of age — buoyant hopes and 
blighting sorrows. There will be life and death — 
sin and sorrow; and, sometimes — let us hope — 
repentance, and joy. Days and weeks will roll 
rapidly away; and, soon will come again another 
Christmas and another New Year. 

Into the dim and misty realms of the past 
Memory wings its silent, speedy flight, and brings 
to us who have passed the springtime of our earthly 
existence, fond recollections of the days of our 
childhood, when Innocence and Truthfulness, and 
Health and Gladness, and Faith in the zest 
of to-day, and the brightness of to-morrow, all went 
hand in hand. 

63 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

How smoothly and peacefully and joyously 
then glided away the old year into the new ! How 
swiftly went out old year after old year, until, in 
the course of time, the new year found us putting 
away childish things — growing older, more thought- 
ful, less confident of anticipated goals, less enchanted 
with the vanishing present, more inquiring as to 
our future and final destiny ! It was Winter which 
taught our youthful eyes to perceive that the blossom 
and fragrance and verdure of the earth is transient 
and perishable. It was the passing of the years 
that made it possible for our impulsive hearts to 
learn that all that colors life with dreamy show 
and magnificence is subject to change and disso- 
lution. It is the hoar-frost which reminds us that 
the spring season of life, the midsummer of our 
existence, the autumn fullness of our being, must 
each and all fade away at the approach of Wintry 
Age. It is Winter which comes upon us unawares, 
blighting much that was beautiful — and hiding 
from our sight cherished objects which we shall 
see no more. And thus the New Year, heralded 
by chilling blasts, yet coming as a harbinger of good, 
reminds us of Death and Desolation. To this 
twofold messenger, we look with both hope and 
resignation. For, no matter what rude winds may 

6 4 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

blow, we must remember that, in the benign reign 
of the New Year, the sun will still give light and 
warmth, as of old, — there will be seed-time and 
harvest again, — the birds will sing and the flowers 
will bloom, and the pulses of life will beat, as in 
the old year. Blossom and fruitage, and Love 
and Joy, will each be with us. Let us trust that 
God's divine love will protect us, and will shine 
down upon us from the sun and moon and planets, 
as of old, and upon generations after us, throughout 
cycles of time, to us unknown and unknowable, 
in which humanity will more and more hail the 
New Year as an era of gladness and of manifold 
blessings. 

Not to consider the coming years as full of 
promise for mankind, even though we may remem- 
ber the finiteness and incompleteness of human 
life, is to forget the gradual, but increasing, advance- 
ment of man in the centuries gone by, in all of the 
essentials which make for right living and right 
thinking — the forward march of civilization, and 
the great fact of Christianity, which is at all times 
extending its uplifting influence among the people 
of every land — even unto the remotest isles of 
every sea. 



65 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



CHRIST SENT. 

BY BENNETT H. YOUNG. 

As man looks into the heavens he is filled with 
a profound sense of sublimity and awe. The sun, 
the moon, the stars, the fading twilight, the gor- 
geous dawn, the glorious moon, infinite space have 
no voices to answer his pathetic inquiry as to who 
inhabits the limitless areas of the great beyond. 
With terror he listens to the deep-toned thunder 
and gazes with dread at the flashing lightning. 
He realizes his own weakness and his absolute 
inability to either understand or cope with these 
tremendous agencies of Nature's marvelous forces. 
But he distinctly feels that in that wonderful land 
there are instrumentalities which affect his destiny. 

Without revelation he would worship the sun, 
the source of heat, power, and life. Without the 
voice of God he would turn in silent or expressed 
despair and try to find solace in the moon, heaven's 
softer and tenderer exponent of creative power, 
or yet with upturned face he would appeal to the 
myriad stars, those lesser lights that illumine the 
firmament which declare Jehovah's glory. These 

66 




COL. BENNETT H. YOUNG. 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

in all their grandeur, in all their vastness and 
appalling splendor, send forth no word of explana- 
tion nor emit a single ray of hope to the being 
whose very existence teaches immortality, and 
from whose bosom wells up the cry of exemption 
from annihilation. 

Two thousand years ago there came from God 
a response to these longings of man for a herald 
from the abode of the sun, moon, and stars. The 
Babe of Bethlehem, cradled in a manger over 
whom the brightest of all heaven's messengers 
stood with fixed intensest glory, and angels sent 
from the very throne of God Himself in great 
multitudes revealed to the world that Jehovah 
had answered the importunate cry of ages, and 
made response to the entreaties and demands of 
the soul for some personal manifestation of God's 
concern for men. 

The silence of eternity was at last broken. 
God's love, grace, mercy, pity and compassion 
overflowed, and down to earth came the gladdest 
song that ever reached human ear or thrilled 
human heart. The secrets of the Most High were 
laid bare, and His immeasurable compassion and 
tender affection for the creatures made in His own 
image and likeness were unveiled. 

67 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

In the form of the Christ, over whose rude 
cradle the planets had ceased their revolutions for 
a while to do honor, there was now the Spirit of 
the Son of God, who had come from the blessed 
land where sin and sorrow find no abode, to take 
man's form and endure man's grief, share man's 
disappointments and trials, and through the gift 
of his own life on the accursed cross, by the shed- 
ding of His own blood to win for all who would 
believe on His name everlasting life, endless joy 
and infinite peace, and to clothe man with an 
immortality like to that of the Creator Himself. 

So we have the celebration of this, the most 
wonderful and most amazing of all earth events — 
Christ-Mass, or Christ Sent — and in which with 
abounding joy, with supreme gladness, we com- 
memorate this advent of God in human form 
amongst men. Heaven, earth, God, angels, men — 
all join in the grand refrain, and with mingled 
songs and melodies, the sweetest and strangest 
ever heard, declare the glory of God, the joy of 
angels, and the gratitude of men. 

The wise men, to whom the heavenly secret 
was revealed and who followed the lead of the 
faithful guide sent from God, "rejoiced with exceed- 
ing great joy," and falling down worshiped the 

68 



Beautiful Tho^lghts of Noble Men 

infant Son of Man, and bestowed upon Him the 
richest treasures. To these there was no full 
revelation of that more glorious hour when, with 
bowed head and infinite glory of soul, off the cross 
the Messiah should make the nobler declaration, 
"It is finished!" and exclaim, "Father, into Thy 
hands I commend my spirit," then with divine 
satisfaction return to that gracious God who had 
sent Him upon His mission of love and redemp- 
tion, so wonderful and so benevolent that only 
God could devise. 

Christmas — man's anniversary of Heaven's 
remembrance and help — fills the souls of all who 
have heard the good news and glad tidings with 
infinite joy. From the home of the redeemed, 
where countless throngs around the throne day 
and night, and from millions on earth, where hearts 
catch divine impulse of praise and worship in the 
teachings of the Comforter sent by the Saviour 
Himself to abide with men forever, there is one 
song, and only one, a melody with no discordant 
note, that bespeaks the touch of heavenly attune- 
ment — the song of Moses and the Lamb. 

He who had come rejoiced in the title of the 
Burden Bearer. He had left Heaven to declare God's 
love for man, inexpressible save by the sacrifice of His 

69 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

only begotten Son , to teach the human soul when 
weary to stay itself on the Divine arm, to show men 
how to be contented when they are wretched, how 
to be happy when they are sad, how to be patient 
when despairing, how to be brave when oppressed, 
and how to be heroic when hopeless, how to smile 
when in the face of man's implacable and invincible 
foe — Death ; and how from the destruction and gloom 
of the grave to break through its darkness and 
terror and find eternal light and rest in the radiance 
and glory of God's changeless abode, Heaven. 



70 




ISAAC T. WOODSON. 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 



THE ONWARD WAY. 

BY ISAAC T. WOODSON. 

O, sweet are the gardens of bloom 
In the dewy and rosy dawn, 

And sweet are the fleeting joys 
Of Life in its radiant morn. 

O, sweet is a lover's dream ; 

Will its sensuous glamour last? 
O, sad is the hour when love shall seem 

A dream of the vanished past. 

O, sweet are stolen waters, 

And bitter the waters of Marah. 
O, sweet is the charm of revelry, 

And sad is the wail of sorrow. 

O, sweet is the song of the siren, 
And weak is the heart of man 

When honor, the crown of endeavor, 
Is lost in a moment's span. 

O, sweet is the voice of Temptation 

To the ear of Innocence, 
And sad is the moan of wretchedness 

When the outcast shall go hence. 
71 



Beautiful Thoughts of Noble Men 

O, sweet is the peace of a well-spent life, 
The calm of a closing day, 

When a lover of good looks o'er the past 
And dreams of the onward way. 

O, swiftly the moments fly, 

And swiftly the years disappear, 

Yet sweet is the hope that when we die 
Our Shepherd will be near. 

O, who would His presence deny? 

Oh, who would His coming delay? 
Full well we know they have little to fear 

Who fear to go astray. 




MRS. ETHEL C. STANDIFORD. 



Mrs. Ethel Standiford 
Has contributed much to the artistic merit of this work by her 
skill in Photography. 



Illustrations by 

Tinsley-Mayer Engraving Co. 

Louisville, Ky. 



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